Mark Taylor brings a fresh burn of imagination to the reader with his suspense, thriller Shutter Speed.

Shutter Speed starts out with a young boy named Jimmy, who has an abusive father. Jimmy likes to take pictures. Well, more than that… He likes to let places tell stories through his pictures. All of this leads him to being away from home a lot, taking pictures.

When a particular old building under renovations catches his eye and he can’t resist the urge to tell its story, even though he has to sneak in through the window. Everything is old, beautiful, and full of secrets, but it’s definitely not safe.

Two older boys also break into the building, and what they do to Jimmy really burns him up and changes his family life forever.

After what happened…his family had to move, and he had to change his name. The past was just too much for them to carry around for the rest of their lives.

Fast forward YEARS later…

The reader is introduced to a group of young men on the wrong side of the law and you start wondering… “Which one of them is Jimmy?” And just when you think you know, your mind is spun again with an evil laugh from the author while Jimmy strikes again, and again, and again.

In the end…everything comes back to that old building, the one with stories to tell through the lense of Jimmy’s camera. And even though he’s the one taking the pictures, he’s wrong about how the building’s story turns out.

Shutter Speed was a fun story that kept me guessing through most of the book. The characters are interesting, but are many for such a short book. I found it confusing at times, but they all served their purpose to the story in some way.

There were some formatting issues with the book – the words overlapped onto the header in a couple places, but I could still read it. There were extra spaces between paragraphs and breaks here and there, and there were a lot of wrong, missing, or extra words. There were also a few issues with punctuation.

In The Corner consists of three stories. They have nothing to do with each other, and each explores the human condition in a new and horrific way.

Jim Bronyaur has the ability to get in your head and scramble things about with his intense, reality driven stories about life and choices.

When The Stars Fade:

Jimmy, a lonely computer technician, is lonely and finds a phone number for a woman who will do anything he wants for a price. When he shows up at their meeting place – a seedy bar – he receives something completely different than the sexual encounter he’d been fantasizing about.

The night from Hell is ended abruptly, but by who…or what?

This story was interesting and keeps you going and thinking with the way it switches back and forth from the present and the past. I give it a 2 QUILL rating for its graphic description and its complex, but effective, presentation.

The Second That Burns:

Trevor has some ‘issues’ to work out after almost being killed in a car accident. He was supposed to die, or so all the doctors had said. He goes to therapy regularly and makes progress in little baby steps, but when things happen that set him back, he and the doctor get discouraged.

Finding a way to push through all the things that are weighing him down, Trevor makes a huge leap in his therapy, but his fears confuse reality and he encounters his worst set back of all.

The characterization in this story was amazing. You find yourself drawn into what is going on and you actually start rooting for Trevor to get better. I give it a 2 QUILL rating for characterization and realism.

The Wrong Side Of The Tracks:

Evan and Barbra set out on an unplanned road trip, and being alone together for a long period of time brings their differences to the surface with a vengeance. But despite their personality issues, they enjoy themselves, until they meet a strange man standing in the middle of the road.

Continuing on their journey after the encounter, they face things they don’t understand and can’t explain, but the hardships help them overcome their difference; they see the things in each other that first made them fall in love.

Things progress from bad to worse, and they are each forced to make a hard choice when stuck between a rock and hard place. Will they make the right decision? Or will they take the easy way out?

This story was my favorite of the three. It was creative, intensely interesting, and sucked me in with the tension. I give it a 3 QUILL rating for the imagination and creativity that went into it.

Overall, for the entire book, I give it a 3 QUILL rating. It’s a great read and one you’ll be talking about and suggesting to friends. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.